[CAUT] Gradually improving voicing

[Fred Sturm]

On 1/10/05 5:55 PM, "C. E. Hood" <hood@uwplatt.edu> wrote:

> Let's look at this from the customer's point of view, just for fun.  I call
> somebody in to fix, say, a funny feel to the handling of my car.  Brakes?
> steereing? shocks?  I hope they find out.  I get it back, and it seems better
> maybe a little but not really.  But they obviously spent time at it & seem to
> have run out of ideas.  So I say Yes it's better, thanks, and let them off the
> hook - maybe I'll let it get worse & try somebody else.
>   So maybe we should try to pin down better what the ineffable problem is (or
> effinig problem) and actually deal with it.  I know piano response is pretty
> subjective & it may be imaginary -
>  Margaret

    Yes, absolutely true. As much as we like to think of most pianists as
hypochondriacs who don't know what the heck they are talking about (it's a
natural defensive response to maintain our own sanity and self-esteem), I
find that most pianists I work with only complain when they have a real
issue. They may not articulate it well, or in a way that I can readily
understand, but there is some truth there somewhere. For that matter, I may
decide that what they want is "bad for the piano" (ie, will make it
unacceptable to the majority of others) and decline to do it, or at any rate
to go as far in a direction as they would like.
    But I think the best policy is to take any criticism, even an off-hand
one, seriously, and to assume that a large number of pianists are "too
polite" to tell us what they really think. As hard as it is on the ego of
the technician, one might well assume they think you aren't competent to do
a better job, so they don't complain for fear you might make it worse.
    Just some thoughts from the "other side of the coin." I certainly do
find myself in situations where I "apply placebos" (pretend to understand
and to "do something"), and I agree that there _is_ a tendency for the
performing pianist to have a changeable opinion. The stress of performance,
together with the need to adjust to a wide range of instruments is bound to
elicit some strange "psychologically based" responses, and the process of
adapting to the instrument is a very important part of the overall process.
Most seasoned performers are the easiest customers to deal with, in my
experience, because they have learned to be much more adaptable, and at a
much quicker rate.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico